Natural Building in the City

My name is Kyle, and I am the founder of Tierra Projects, a Sydney based Landscape construction company with a focus on Permaculture and Earth Building Projects.

I recently ran an Earth building workshop on the lower north shore of Sydney to build some wattle and daub infill walls for a quail aviary I am building for a client. The event was hosted by Permaculture Sydney North and facilitated by myself and the owner/client. Due to space limitations and wanting to allow all participants ample opportunity to get hands on with the materials, we had a cosy group of 9 people attend.

We started the day off with introductions and a quick overview on the history and scope of earth building, the different methods of construction (mud brick, rammed earth, cob, light earth, wattle and daub etc), how to assess local sub soil/clay for suitability of earth building, how to create test samples and the type of small projects people can take on in and around their own homes in the suburbs.

The rest of the day was spent talking, stomping, weaving bamboo frames or ‘wattles’, and building up the walls with our mud mixture or ‘daubing’. Through working together, the participants were able to set up the bulk of the bamboo wattles, mix over a ton of clay, sand and straw with their feet and build up walls for the Quail Aviary.

One of the pitfalls of building with earth, is that it can be a labour-intensive process. The solution can be getting people together, running a workshop and reclaiming this traditional method of building. Not to mention the low carbon footprint of such construction and the amazing health benefits of building with such materials.

The focus of Tierra projects is to facilitate small projects such as animal housing, earth ovens, rocket stoves, outdoor kitchens etc that can be constructed without the need for council approval and with a more hands-on DIY approach from the owner with suitable guidance from myself. Although, I would love to see the building of homes from these natural materials return to the cities, I feel that with current financial, regulatory and other constraints small projects like these are more accessible to home owners who may be time poor with the demands of city life, and can provide an increased quality of life, enhance sustainable/regenerative living and connect people to a deeper more connected way of living.

A short video of the day can be viewed here:

To connect with us as Tierra project head to https://tierraprojects.com.au/

The Finished aviary